Agricultural production of central heating

The project 'Agricultural production of central heating – business models, technical systems and environmental effects when introducing third party access (TPA)' started in 2012 and finished in 2015.

The aim of the project was to describe how farmers can create attractive system and models for production and selling of heat in district heating grids, under new regulations for TPA (third party access). By selling heat instead of fuel, the farmers control one more step in the value chain, and the potential for good economic results will increase. Possible systems were described and analysed in technical, financial and environmental perspectives. We analysed systems based on straw as well as energy crops, and also systems based on woody biomass from farmer-owned forests.  Delivery of waste heat from electricity production from biogas was also investigated. All studied systems provided climate benefits and the systems based on combustion of soild biomass were also profitable.

The project was financed by SLF, Stiftelsen lantbruksforskning.

Publications from the project:

Kimming M Sundberg C, Nordberg Å, Hansson P-A. 2015. Vertical integration of local fuel producers into rural district heating systems - Climate impact and production costs Energy Policy. (1) 51-61 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421514006648

The above publication is included in the PhD thesis of Marie Kimming:

Kimming, Marie, 2015. Decentralised Energy Systems Based on Biomass – a Life Cycle Perspective on Climate Impact and Energy Balance. Doktorsavhandling. Acta Universitatis Agruculturae Sueciae 2015:15 Fakulteten för Naturresurser och lantbruksvetenskap, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, SLU, Uppsala. http://pub.epsilon.slu.se/11738/

Petersson, Emmy, 2013. The agricultural sector as an energy producer– Technical, economical and environmental prerequisites for district heating production with local wood MSc thesis 2013:06 Civilingenjörsprogrammet energisystem. Department of Energy and Technology, SLU. Report in Swedish with Abstract in English. http://stud.epsilon.slu.se/5812/

Participants from the Department were 

Cecilia Sundberg, Emmy Petersson, Marie Kimming, Per-Anders Hansson och Åke Nordberg.